bathing snakes?

[thomas1123]

do you guys give your snakes baths?

[LLinz]

I gave mine a batch when he had a bad shed, he seemed to actually enjoy it.

[stephanbakir]

Every time they go blue.

[red ink]

Nope I have never given my snakes a bath...

[TeaNinja]

i have never bathed my snakes either. i just spray a lot when they're in shed and it's fine.

[Lankyrob]

Unless they have decided to slither through teir poo and got covered in it then there should be no need. Each of my snakes has a water bowl big enough they can submerge in if they want too.

[Will0W783]

You can bathe snakes, but you have to exercise extreme caution if the animal is dehydrated, sick or otherwise weakened. Even a large snake can drown in a half-inch of water if it can't get its head up.

I made the mistake a few years back of soaking a GTP that had a severe RI. The snake had a seizure in the soak and died. To this day, I do not know whether it was the seizure that killed it, or if it got water into its lungs while it was seizing. I just know that it was horrible, and I never leave snakes unattended in soaks now.

[stephanbakir]

That sucks sorry willow
Regarding soaks, I soak them every time they go blue. mostly because when I'm cleaning the cage they go into a secondary container anyway. (I really need to invest in new sentecs when I get back into retics...)

[Will0W783]

Thanks stephan...it was a hard break and I know the snake most likely would not have survived anyway, but I still feel awful knowing it might have lived a bit longer had I not left the room while it was soaking.

Stephan, if your care conditions are proper, you should not need to soak every single time they go into shed. Some species, like the Burmese and reticulated pythons, enjoy water. But many others do not want to be in water and will become stressed by it. I would not soak them unless you see they are having trouble shedding. If you keep the humidity right in the cages they should shed perfectly without soaks.

[stephanbakir]

I haven't owned any of those reptiles yet I'm probably gona stick with tics for a while

[mykee]

"Unless they have decided to slither through teir poo and got covered in it then there should be no need. Each of my snakes has a water bowl big enough they can submerge in if they want too. "

Rob nailed it. I never bathe my snakes. They can bathe themselves if they prefer; their water dishes are large enough to completely submerge themselves.

[radstusky]

My first snake was a cornsnake, which I gave a bath once. I left it in the tub for literally a second and it disappeared! This was a long time ago, but to this day I have no idea where the snake went. My guess is up the water spout perhaps. So my advice is that if you do give your snake a bath, keep a very close eye on it.

[stephanbakir]

itsey bitsey snakey went up the water spout down came the rain and washed the snakey out

[whoaxmary]

The only time I've 'bathed' a snake is after a very very messy post shed poop my big pine snake had, and decided to move through it and get himself covered in it by the time I woke up to find it. x.x
Probably one of the worst times I've spent cleaning an enclosure to date. ;/
Nice thing about small snakes = small poos. lol

[marionsclan]

I've read that giving certain snakes a bath actually adds to their exercise. They get to stretch out and move muscles they don't usually use and it helps with bowl movements.

I've given mine two baths so far, once when I got him, because he had two eyecaps that were still on (that is one over the other) and this time around because he turned blue. As for the eyecaps, I got him like that from the previous owners and at that point I was still a newby but quickly read up on it and a 10 minute bath and a light rub with a towel made the lil boy see again.

I don't think baths hurt, if it is the right temperature, and I like the idea of exercising the snake as long as it doesn't get stressed.